Jeremy Morris arrested for $1.3B Montreal mega-hospital fraud case

MONTREAL – Quebec’s anti-corruption squad has arrested one of the five men being sought in the case of a billion-dollar project to build a Montreal mega-hospital – leaving Arthur Porter as the only one left with a warrant out for his arrest.

Jeremy Morris was arrested at Montreal-Trudeau Airport Monday night as he arrived on a flight from the Bahamas.

Morris is the administrator of a Bahamas-based investment company and is set to appear in a Montreal court on Tuesday to be formally charged.

Morris and Porter, the former head of Canada’s spy overseer, are among five people wanted on numerous charges – including fraud, breach of trust and document forgery – linked to the $1.3-billion McGill University Hospital Centre (MUHC) project.

The others are former SNC Lavalin senior executives Pierre Duhaime and Riadh Ben Aissa, and former McGill University Hospital Centre administrator Yanai Elbaz – all of whom have already been arrested.

The Canadian government is still trying to extradite Porter from the Bahamas, where he runs a medical clinic and is apparently cancer-stricken.

An affidavit used to obtain a warrant to search the MUHC headquarters last September — unsealed at the request of the National Post and other media — revealed two unnamed MUHC administrators were suspected of fraud over the superhospital construction contract.

The affidavit alleged Mr. Ben Aissa oversaw the transfer of $22.5-million from SNC-Lavalin’s Tunisian operation to a bank account in the name of Sierra Asset Management. External auditors called in by SNC-Lavalin to examine the transaction were unable to establish what, if any, services were performed in exchange for the payment.

The five men face a total of 24 counts, including fraud, fraud against the government, breach of trust, conspiracy, offering secret commissions and laundering the proceeds of crime.